Motivation is something that is supposed to come easy to writers. We're supposed to put ourselves in front of our computer, open a word document or whatever your software or choice is, and write whatever we're going to get done for the day. However, you also know, as a writer that it doesn't always happen that way. There are days or weeks or even months where you do not have anything going right with your writing. You're stalled on a scene or a chapter and there seems to be nowhere to go. You feel overwhelmed with life tasks and your writing tasks fall by the wayside. I know. I've been there. Let's go through some ways that I help myself get back on the horse.
1. Stalled on scene/chapter: Jump around! This was very hard for me to learn how to do but I'm glad I did. I am a very linear writer, wanting to write from chapter 1 to chapter 30, and I had to write in order. Writing out of order was foreign to me and felt wrong. However, you will do yourself a huge service if you start practicing writing out of order. It means that you can jump from a chapter that's giving you a hard time, go to a chapter or scene where the words flow, and come back to the chapter that's giving you a problem. Also, writing ahead might make you realize what the problem is so you can fix it and get the problem chapter written.
2. Life is overwhelming and there's no time to write. I heard you on this one. I know that a lot of the advice is to get up early and write but that doesn't work for me. I'm a night owl so I'll stay up and write to get some writing in. Or I'll overload my weekends with writing because there was just no time during the week to do so. Also, having a to-do checklist and having one of your to-dos being write x amount of words. Yes, you might push it off, which is why you should add to your word count if you do as long as it won't stress you out. If it does, then just move it and get it done when you can.
3. Your computer is just not comfortable. Oh boy, been there for that too. Right now, I'm going through that. One of the best ways to work through this is change up how you're writing. I know this might not be workable for everyone, but I have a Surface that is my writing computer that goes everywhere with me. While I do like writing on my normal laptop, I'm just not wanting to on there right now. There's no want to get my writing done on it, so I'm working on the Surface to get writing done. However, if you don't, I've got a full recommendations. Write long hand and then type it up to see where you go with it. If possible, see if you can borrow a computer or go to your local library and use one of their computers. Make sure that you save your work to a thumb drive or the cloud or even your email if you go that route. If you have a smartphone, use that with either typing into a program that will save your notes. Or talk into your smartphone! Changing up how your writing really might help.
4. Last one is what to do when all you want is to spend time on the internet. I get it, the internet is awesome and sometimes want to read Twitter or Facebook or whatever you're doing. However, it's a motivational suck because you'll spend a lot of time on it without getting writing done. There are a ton of blockers up there to block certain sites if you still need the internet to Google - I know I do - or you can just turn it off. It is so hard to turn it off so I do recommend using a blocker for the sites that you go through the most. Plus, you can just set it to a timer and at the end of the time, take a break in order to stretch.
Those are my four big ways that I get demotivated and then back into writing. Do you have any other you would like advice on or would like to give your own tips? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter. Until next time, happy writing!
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